Electrical connectors, specifically mateable and unmateable electrical connectors, have been used for years with male and female or pin and socket terminals which interengage when the connectors are mated. The terminals are mounted in dielectric housings and the housings usually contain a plurality of such interconnectable terminals. A specific type of the more general pin and socket electrical terminal design is commonly termed a blade contact arrangement mateable with a receptacle or female contact element. The blade contact simply is formed of an elongated flat blade portion at one end of the terminal, the blade contact being joined to a conductor terminating end by an intermediate section.
Most blade contact and receptacle contact terminals are fabricated of stamped and formed metal material. Therefore, a given blade contact has a given thickness determined by the practical aspects of stamping and forming the components from sheets of metal.
Heretofore, there has been a problem with providing sufficient rigidity for a blade contact of a terminal. If the sheets of metal are provided of a sufficient thickness to provide sufficient rigidity for the blade contact, forming the remainder of the terminal is made more difficult, requiring unnecessarily bulky and rigid stamping and forming dies, and the cost of such material is unnecessarily excessive. In addition, uniform electrical specifications are requiring the blade contacts to be of a thickness which is beyond that which is desirable for fabrication from a single-thickness sheet of metal material. Consequently, blade contacts have been fabricated to have a dual thickness of the sheet metal material to provide sufficient rigidity and to satisfy the electrical specifications.
Heretofore, the most common type of dual thickness blade contact has been fabricated by folding the sheet metal material along an elongated edge of the blade contact. In other words, one or both sides of the blade are folded 180.degree. about a line parallel to the longitudinal axis of the terminal. Such configurations not only are difficult to manufacture, but they may result in stress fractures in the long fold line. In addition, by folding the blade along an elongated edge thereof, electrical current discontinuity results longitudinally of the terminal from at least one of the blade thicknesses to the intermediate section of the terminal. This results in a poor flow of electricity because of such discontinuity. Efforts have been made to provide separately formed connecting portions, such as including serrated teeth, for establishing continuity between the intermediate section of the terminal and the folded-over thickness of the blade contact. This latter approach adds considerably to the costs forming steps required to fabricate the terminal.
This invention is directed to solving these problems and satisfying the need of providing a simple, yet electrically effective dual thickness blade contact for a stamped and formed metal terminal.